Five Minute Friday: Grace

On Friday’s we silence the inner critic. The loudest of all naysayers. And on Fridays we remind ourselves that The Word is for us and loves us and welcomes us.

Your words are safe here.

So come and write with us. Together. On one word for five minutes. And then link up your post or leave it in the comments. But remember, the one must rule here is that you visit the person who linked up before you and encourage them in their writing.

Oh, Lisa Jo, this is just perfect. And I have to beg your grace in advance because I just wrote on this very word and topic early this evening. So, I”m linking up a post that is definitely not a FMF but is very fitting, I think. Hope you don’t mind this extreme rule-bending too much! :)

Oh sweet friend… Grace for you and Grace for me… and Grace for us all… in the in between… in the highs and the lows, and the ups and the downs! He is Grace… and He is here… and you? Well – you just invite Him right on in with every post! So blessed to have hugged you proper at Allume last weekend! My, how you bless!

Marinalva Sickler
on November 1, 2013 at 2:15 am

Hi, Karrilee!
You’re so blessed! You had a chance to give a hug to Lisa-Jo Baker at Allume!
I gathered friends at my home for our monthly meeting and around the table we watched Allume.
Keep it up being part of the community of sisters. Keep writing and loving’

Marinalva Sickler
on November 1, 2013 at 2:07 am

“My Grace is enough for you.” I recall my mom saying it many time when things were looking like gray. So, I said to myself if Grace is all what I need I must ask it because I’m lost.
Lost without a husband who went to heaven and money short at the house and bills to pay. I need Grace.
Then, the probating message from the family came to me. Lord, I need Grace!
A request and a photo plus a prayer – full of agony, shame, and sadness – that’s all what it took to make the down time finished.
The sadness was vanished away. A request and a photo proved that Grace is still in action. As Solomon sang, I’m singing: “As the apple three among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.”
That’s Grace giving a song – a song of love. There is a time to sing again on the land – because of Grace.

I hope it’s okay I wrote more than five minutes today. I’ve completed the Ultimate Blog Challenge yesterday and am happy I did. enjoyed writing today’s prompt. Kept writing to make it a little longer because like last time, today too I wrote just two short paragraphs.

GRACE… LOVE that word…The first thing that comes to mind? Getting REAL at Christs Expense. The “no matter whats” of the world. Grace covers all excuses, shortcomings, intentions, thoughts, actions, words, ignorance and deliberations. You cant explain it, but you COVET it. Sounds odd, how can you want something you dont fully understand..and even more than that…the SAME grace we RECEIVE, we must give. Grace…makes me think of a prayer shawl…Enveloped in Gods love…No Matter What…..No “I told you so’s”…No “if you wouldve just listened to me”…No “you get what you deserve”….Just pure Jesus lovin Grace. STOP

Grace. That’s just the word I needed to hear. I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on grace lately. It actually made it a bit harder to write because there’s a lot in my head that is grace-related. I hope I managed to get some of it out cohesively.

Thank you for this. I needed this. when I came on here to check what the word was for today, I wans’t going to write about it. But then I felt like I needed to write. So I linked up for the first time in about 2 weeks.

Boy can I relate to pretty much everything on that list! I definitely resound with “temper tantrums and tears and dark streaks of mascara”. I hardly wear mascara anymore, I try to wear eyeliner if I get the chance in the morning to take care of myself, but often if there are streaks, it is from eyeliner days old because I haven’t bothered to reapply makeup or wash my face. The life of a mom, as I sit and type this with a fussy infant nursing at my breast. As far as grace goes, this is what comes to mind….

Shhhhhhh.
Dearest Lisa Jo, moms and grandmoms, men, women, children of all ages.
Can you hear it? The sound of it?
So hard to hear in this loud world in which we live, everybody talking at once, where there is no such thing as silence.
But listen…
She cries. She weeps. She wails. She can barely breathe, her pain so great.
She stands at His feet.
What have they done to Him?
What has SHE done to Him? If only she could’ve stopped it! If only she could have saved Him!
Her guilt so great!
Listen…
The blood drips. He gasps for each breath. The mockery has ceased now. Most have gone home.
The mother cries and the Son cries out “My God, why have you forsaken me!?!”
The guilt laid on Him. Her guilt. The guilt of the world. It weighs down His soul, holds His own body against the wood.
And He speaks one last time…”It is finished.”
The mother couldn’t save the Son. The Son saved His mother.
Forgiven.
All her sins as a mother, and every mother who has lived.
Forgiven.
Can you hear it? The sound of it?
Grace.
Grace so amazing, it saved a wretch, a woman, a mother like me.

Oh, my- I love your prayer…I seem to have somewhat echoed it? Grace…it’s what I need and cannot get enough of- is it wrong to be greedy for it? Desperate for it? Yet, He does lavish it…glad to be back here today. ;)

I’ve had thoughts swirling about my head all week. And I know I’m meant to write them down. To get them out. But I am so caught up in other things that I don’t get to it. And I’m still not sure how to word it all exactly anyway. But Grace comes along and ties it all together. And though it wasn’t what i thought I was thinking about, it fits in so well…. And your words on grace are so fitting also with other events of late. Thank you for writing them down.

Grace is being given the word ‘grace’ to write about on a day that I’m struggling with big-time anger and can’t see the way out of. Seriously, I cried for help and was asked to look upon grace? It’s too good to be true! Grace is spilling my coffee. Before you say “what?” it means that when the day is going horribly wrong – it’s raining so my active toddler can’t go outside and she’s teething to boot so we’re both ramie and prone to crankiness, and my husband and I argued on the phone (the worst!) – I decided to use a much treasured Starbucks gift card for a ‘whippy-frappy’ drink. I put it on the hood while I worked with my toddler to convince her to get strapped into the car. I buckle up. And drive off, only to realize with tears in my eyes that the cherished hot, fall beverage is all over the parking lot. But yes, that’s grace. Because I was relying on the pile of foam on top of a tasty caffeinated drink to make me feel like the day was getting better. But it wasn’t because the anger was at a slow burn and I needed to see how desperate I am for grace. Some days you know you need the gospel but you can’t see how it’s going to fix the very real feelings of being overwhelmed, exhausted, or angry (or all of the above). That’s when grace steps in and He’s so faithful to do it. Every. Time.

Dana Robb
on November 2, 2013 at 7:56 am

Those days are the worst. When everything seems to be working against you to get on your last nerve and pluck that last bit of patience from you. I no longer have toddlers or babies , but I have been there x3 and the good moments in between the pull your hair out times are the best and most treasured. This was a great post and I enjoyed reading it – you use great imagery in your writing.

Hey!
I’ve been trying to join with you for weeks – but every week there is an X on my post. What is that about? How can I fix it?
Thanks
(really enjoying reading some others in this community–appreciating the opportunity to be a part)

Grace, Grace Grace for me. I just stumbled on your linky from another blog. I’m new here and would like to participate on this topic and others that may follow. So I beg for grace to link my post today being Saturday(not on a friday)

Yes! Only by grace, can we create those safe places for others and for ourselves…may we first receive it from God, then give it to others and to ourselves (and maybe, this is hardest, to show it to ourselves)…blessings to you, Lisa- Jo :)

Wendy
on November 2, 2013 at 1:23 am

An extension of grace to each other, an extension of ourselves… oh how we need this grace! Thank you for the reminder!!

Grace the unmerited favor that is given to all by God. The unconditional love and approval regardless of what you have done or not done. It is sometimes hard to believe. You listen to the sermons, read about it in the bible, but when you look at the world around you and more specifically when you look at your own life and what you have done with it (or not done with it), it is hard to accept that God loves us unconditionally. I think about all of the poverty, the material excess, the lack of genuine compassion and I wonder how can He still love us? We take advantage of the blessings he has given us, we don’t live to serve others, and we don’t follow all of his commandments – how can he still love us? But, He does. And that is what I have to keep returning to…that he loves me regardless and that inspires me in turn to love more, serve more, and give grace to others; even when they do not deserve it. For how can I do hold back the grace that is within my ability to give, when he gives it without reservation to me?

Lauren
on November 18, 2013 at 9:11 pm

Great post! And thanks for your encouraging words to my post. I’ve never posted on the internet before, so it’s all new to me. You were really kind and thanks for reading. :)

Grace in the moment, for the moment. The Peace of Christ which passes all understanding. Knowing that all will be okay because God is doing it, is in charge, in His time. I am His Beloved Daughter, and so is the other person involved. God is working in and through us both. It is mine to be aware of this fact, to make it real in myself and know it is the reality of the situation. To approach with calm and peace and know that whatever way the situation turns, God is in all, with all, beckoning. G r a c e to walk the earth and be mother trusting trusting loving loving in dialogue with my friend, my God, listening, speaking acting with love care compassion sympathy to the other, not getting twisted.